Valeria Burlakova – “Lera” – Journalist and Mortar Operator

October 27, 2018October 27, 2025

The short haircut, tattoos and dark-lined eyes of this woman involuntarily provoke you to fill in her biography in your head. She could quite possibly be a rock star. She could tell about concert tours, alcohol-drug parties and crazy plans. But on her shoulders is a military backpack with patches. On it, written in green marker: “Lera”. Valeria Burlakova is a veteran of the russian-Ukrainian war in the east. Like many servicemen, her story began with Maidan. At that time, she still worked as a journalist at Ukrainian Week. She covered the chronicle of protests as a correspondent.

On the day of the Heavenly Hundred shooting, literally a couple of hours before the first death at the hands of snipers, they sent Lera home. She was practically no longer standing on her feet. The day before, she hadn’t slept for several days in a row. Fatigue and exhaustion caught up with her immediately. As soon as she crossed the threshold of the apartment. She woke up late in the evening. By then, the news was already full of headlines about the bloodshed on Instytutska. Valeria’s direct speech:

It was a wild feeling of guilt. On that day, you could die for Ukraine. But instead, seventeen-year-old children died, and I slept peacefully at home at that time. I survived, and they didn’t. I didn’t know how to live with this further. Therefore, the fact that the war started became a kind of salvation. It was my chance to prove that I didn’t survive in vain.

For six months, Lera looked for a unit that could accept her. But all in vain. Therefore, she continued to travel to the east as a journalist. Eventually, she achieved her goal. She ended up in the volunteer battalion “Carpathian Sich”. Already from Donbas, Lera called the editorial office. She informed them of her dismissal.

How It All Started

Valeria about SPG (Mounted Anti-Tank Grenade Launcher):

In the beginning, somewhere in 2014-2015, not understanding the real situation saved me. Someone would say: “SPG is working on us”. To which I answered: “And what is SPG?”

Pronouncing the last phrase, Lera pretends to blink like a doll. She rounds her surprised eyes. Valeria about mortar shelling:

It was scary. If someone had asked me then whether I thought I would survive this winter, I would probably have answered “No”. I remember once saying to the commander: “And what’s a mine flight like?” They explained to me: “It will whistle. You hear a whistle — lie down”. When I first heard a mine, I threw my head up. I did like this: “wooow”. But nothing, I got used to it later.

Then You Get Used to It

According to Lera, at war you get used to absolutely everything. To the fact that sometimes you need to melt snow to wash yourself. To the fact that instead of a bed, you have wooden boxes covered with blankets. To the fact that you may not live until morning. Death becomes mundane. At some moment, you simply realize something. Today they killed him. Tomorrow they may already say about you: two-hundredth*. A two and two zeros that draw a line under the life of every serviceman.

After the death of her fiancé Anatoliy, Lera wrote the book “Life P.S.”. Lera transferred the funds from its sale to the needs of fighters in Donbas.

On December 29, 2016, Valeria Burlakova was awarded the medal “For Military Service to Ukraine”.

*200th (two-hundredth) – Ukrainian Army slang for KIA (Killed in Action). From the military code “Cargo 200” for transporting dead bodies.